Preparing the Turtle Hatchery 2021

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.]

Update: June 31, 2021

We've finished preparing the hatchery for this year's Turtle Rescue Season at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve and are ready for the turtles to start making their nests. The hatchery has been reconstructed, incorporating improvements we learned from last year, and they're now waiting to be filled with thousands of turtle eggs!

Since the Tapiche Reserve is located in seasonally flooded forest, the beach in front of the lodge gets flooded completely and stays underwater for a few months during the high water season. This means that the turtle hatchery has to be rebuilt every year at the start of the nesting season, as unfortunately there is no way of preserving it through the flood. We've done a lot of careful observation of natural turtle nests over the years, and we try to recreate those natural nesting conditions as closely as possible. We chose to build the hatchery on the beach in front of the lodge in a spot that replicates the angle of sunlight and general weather conditions as the beaches where the turtles naturally make their nests.

Each year, the flood washes up compacted organic matter to our beach, covering the structures of last year's hatchery in a layer of hard, dry soil. Soon after the water receded from the beach, weeds and grass started growing. This means that the first step in preparing and re-building the hatchery was to dig out all the grass and the hard soil. We had to loosen and remove the soil in order to make space for the soft sand that makes the best nesting material for the turtles. We then renewed the wooden structure that frames the incubation boxes and added boards underground to protect the hatchery from underground attacks, an improvement learned from last year's rescue season.

To get the soft sand that fills the incubation boxes, we went to the beaches where the turtles naturally make their nests. There we filled large cargo sacks with the soft sand and brought them back to the lodge. The hardest part was carrying the large, heavy bags of sand up the rivershore to get them to the incubation boxes; each bag of sand weighed about 50kg/110lbs. At the time when the water level is low enough to reveal sandy beaches, the riverbank is about five meters higher than the actual level of the river water. All the bags were carried up this steep shore solely with pure human power and without any additional mechanical leverage or assistance. We're still short on staff this year due to ongoing effects of the pandemic, but we're continuing our work with assistance from our GoFundMe supporters, thanks so much! The photo of the boat carrying the bags only shows one of the three times we went out to bring the sand - and this amount of sand only filled the two bigger of our four incubation boxes. It takes approx 40 cargo sacks of sand to fill one incubation box!

We focused on preparing the two bigger hatching boxes for the start of the season; last year these two boxes afforded space for 6000 turtle eggs. With these two boxes prepped, we are absolutely ready for the turtles to start coming up to the beaches and make their nests. Unfortunately we have had some unusually cold days during the last week, and the temperature dropped down as low as 15°C/59°F. We have never experienced this kind of cold before and it seems to have influenced the turtles too. In all the past years since we started the Turtle Rescue Project at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, we have found nests in the last two weeks of June. We hope that the weather will warm up in the next few days and we will get some warm and sunny days which the turtles seem to love for making their nests. The Tapiche Jungle Reserve team is ready and waiting for the turtles to officially start the Turtle Rescue Season 2021!

Many thanks to all who supported the Turtle Rescue Project 2020. If you would like to support the Turtle Rescue Project 2021, our GoFundMe https://gofund.me/472e0a00 will remain open, and funds will be used to sustain operations and pay local staff since we still lack stable tourism income. Thank you so much!